What is the name of the control on older sea going vessels the changes speed and fwd & rev?

The actual control is in the engine room. They are the throttles which on a steam turbine vessel are two valves. One for ahead, and one for astearn. The Engineers had to open or close them to specific RPM on the engine to turn the propeller for however many knots the officer orders. The order came from the wheelhouse via the Engine Order Telegraph (EOT), which was a brass stand with a handle with two pointers for ahead and astern, Dead slow,Slow, Half, and Full. Th Enginroom has the same set up. When the Wheelhouse orders down, The Engineers Ring it back, and Adjust the engines.

The engine room telegraph there is one on the bridge and an exact duplicate in the engine room. This works by the bridge sending the signal down to the engine room telegraph which will ring and show the engineer the desired speed and direction the engines should be running the engineer than rings the bridge and the bridge telegraph would ring and the indicator would be in the same position on both sides of the telegraph. This tells the bridge the engineer got the message. More Questions & Answers ...